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An update (#1) on the Famenin hammerstone…

As was mentioned in an earlier post, the Famenin meteorite fell on the 27th of June at 8:30 in the morning. Soon after the discovery of the hammerstone on the roof, reports made their way to the Iranian news outlets. A piece was given to the University of Tehran who then fowarded it to CEREGE (France) for identification and typing. After the initial work, which included magnetic susceptibility measurements and petrography, it was thought that the stone may be an L chondrite (although the susceptibility was on the high end for an L, they said). Further work with electron microprobe indicated that it’s type was actually an H/L3 (hence the higher susceptibility, I presume).

Looking at a broken surface, it is clear why this meteorite earns a low petrographic grade. In places, the chondrules are large and appear to be falling out of the matrix. Even without a thin section, this meteorite offers up a lot of details with a blush of colour becoming apparent under magnification. Upon showing some of the pictures to a geologist colleague, her initial comment was that, “it’s a petrographers dream!” As a geophysicist, I sometimes have trouble understanding why the ‘other G’ gets so excited by rocks. But, this is a case where I find myself wanting to spend too much time behind a microscope.

Lots of interesting work is being planned for this meteorite in the future so, watch this space for updates!